What is the difference between the HKSI and the SFC?

One regulates. The other examines. They are separate bodies and confusing them leads to a specific, common and expensive mistake: assuming that passing Paper 1 means you are licensed.

It does not. It means you have cleared the examination component of a competence requirement set by somebody else.

What the SFC actually does

The SFC is the regulator. It administers the licensing regime under the Securities and Futures Ordinance, decides who is fit and proper to be licensed, publishes the Code of Conduct and the rest of the codes and guidelines, supervises intermediaries and brings enforcement action when they get it wrong.

Competence requirements are its work too, which is where the examinations come in. The SFC decides what standard an applicant must meet. It does not run the exam that demonstrates it.

What the HKSI Institute does

HKSI Institute runs the Licensing Examination for Securities and Futures Intermediaries, publishes the syllabuses, sells the study manuals, holds the sittings and issues your result. It also publishes the monthly pass rates, which is where the figure of 51.9% over the twelve months to June 2026 comes from.

HKSI is a professional body rather than a regulator. It cannot license you, cannot discipline you as a licensee and does not make the rules Paper 1 tests you on. It tests you on somebody else's rules.

How the two connect in practice

1. The SFC sets a competence requirement for the regulated activity you want to carry on.
2. You satisfy the examination part of it by passing the relevant HKSI papers, starting with Paper 1 for most routes.
3. Your prospective employer sponsors a licence application to the SFC, which also assesses whether you are fit and proper.
4. The SFC grants the licence, and your name appears on its public register.
5. From then on you are the SFC's concern, not HKSI's, apart from any further papers you sit.

Step three is the one people skip in their heads. Competence is necessary and not sufficient. A pass does not oblige anyone to license you.

Which one do you contact?

HKSI for anything about the exam: enrolment, fees, permitted items, results, retakes, deferral. The examination handbook answers most of it.

The SFC, usually through your sponsoring firm's compliance team, for anything about the licence: which papers your activity requires, exemptions, the application, and the rules once you hold it. Applicants rarely deal with the SFC directly on their own behalf, which is a detail worth knowing before you draft an email.

A distinction worth carrying into the exam

Our opinion: candidates who never get this straight tend to struggle with Topic 1 and Topic 3, because a decent share of Paper 1 is about who has power to do what. The SFC, the exchanges and their clearing houses, the Financial Secretary, the courts and the tribunals all have distinct roles, and questions turn on which body acts.

Getting the HKSI and SFC distinction right on day one builds the habit of asking who is acting. The concession is that this is a small point compared with the volume of the syllabus, and knowing it will not by itself get you to 42 of 60. What the SFC does and Hong Kong's financial regulators explained cover the full map.